The present invention relates generally to dental hygiene and, more particularly, to toothbrushes which are particularly well suited to reach into and remove plaque and debris from the gingival sulcus and to clean exposed tooth surfaces.
Most dentists recommend that their patients use the Bass method of tooth brushing. This technique is the most widely recommended method for removing plaque from the gingival sulcus and from the exposed surfaces of the teeth. The Bass method requires that the toothbrush head be positioned along the gum line at approximately a 45 degree angle, with at least one row of bristles nestled below the gumline. While the brush head is oriented in this way, it is gently rocked back and forth so that bristles in the gingival sulcus loosen and remove plaque which is present there while the rest of the bristles brush and massage the exposed surface of the gum and clean the exposed tooth surfaces. The bristles are then swept away from the gumline. The brush head is then lifted away and repositioned to perform the same process with adjacent teeth and gums. An important objective of this technique is to reduce targeted pathogenic organisms found in the gingival sulcus which, among other things, will minimize or eliminate gingival inflammation and bleeding.
Toothbrushes with a wide variety of bristle configurations are available. The most common toothbrush design comprises a handle with a flat head and tufts of bristles of substantially the same length projecting from the head. The tips of the bristles in these conventional toothbrushes therefore lie generally in a plane. This design is not particularly well-suited to the Bass method because the bristles which contact the outer tooth surfaces and the outer surfaces of the gums below the gum line impede penetration of the remaining bristles into the gingival sulcus or into the spaces between adjacent teeth.
Other current toothbrush head designs have outer longitudinal rows of bristles which are longer than the rows of bristles lying in the inner portion of the brush. This design is not well suited to the Bass method because the outer bristles tend to lay on top of the gingiva, rather than penetrating into the gingival sulcus. Yet another toothbrush bristle head design which has been suggested comprises groupings of tufts of bristles with tips at two different heights. In this design, the tufts are arranged in alternating, laterally extending rows shaped to form either a square wave configuration or a triangular wave configuration. In both cases, the design offers little in the way of penetration of the gingival sulcus when the Bass technique is used. Furthermore, the sharp transition in bristle length at the corners of the square or triangular wave configurations are potentially irritating and uncomfortable.
Toothbrush designs have included bristle tips cut laterally across the longitudinal axis of the head of the toothbrush to produce a dome configuration. This configuration does have advantages with respect to the Bass technique, since the outer rows of bristles are shorter than the inner rows and do not interfere with penetration of the inner rows into the gingival sulcus.
Techniques for increasing effective bristle tip area by feathering the tips of the bristles in a variety of different kinds of brushes have been known for some time. These techniques have been applied to various toothbrush bristle configurations, including some of the configurations discussed above. Also, selective feathering of bristles has been suggested in the past. While feathering may improve the overall performance of many toothbrushes, it has had little impact on the effectiveness of earlier brushes in cleaning the gingival sulcus because the bristle tuft configurations have not been well-suited to the Bass method. Furthermore, although increasing the effective bristle tip area would further improve the cleaning achieved with the dome configuration discussed immediately above, this has not been suggested in the past.
The present invention provides a new toothbrush head design with an ideal configuration of bristle tuft lengths as well as feathering of selected bristle tips. The resulting toothbrush is gentle but effective, providing outstanding overall comfort as well as greatly enhanced effectiveness in reaching into and removing plaque and debris from the gingival sulcus, massaging the gum both above and below the gum line, and cleaning exposed tooth surfaces including the spaces between adjacent teeth.
The present invention is directed to a toothbrush having an elongated handle with an elongated head at one end. A plurality of tufts of bristles are mounted in the head and project generally perpendicularly from it. The tips of the tuft bristles are cut to form an undulating surface comprising at least two rounded peaks extending generally laterally across the head of the toothbrush.
The plurality of tufts of bristles mounted in the toothbrush head may include at least two longitudinally disposed outer rows, one along each of the opposite outer edges of the head, defining an inner area lying therebetween, and at least one longitudinally disposed inner row of tufts positioned in this inner area. The tips of the bristles in the inner rows of tufts of bristles are feathered.
In one preferred embodiment, the tips of the tufts of all or only the inner row(s) of bristles are also cut in a rounded profile that arches upwardly across the longitudinal axis of the head. Also, in another preferred embodiment of the invention, the undulating surface is made up of at least three rounded peaks. In yet another preferred embodiment, some of the tufts of bristles of the inner row(s) extend beyond the last tufts of the bristles in the outer rows.